Runes of Magic: Castles added!

Frogster America, Inc. today announced that players will now be able to have their own castles in the fantasy world of Taborea.

Frogster is activating the long-awaited ‘Guild Castles’ feature today in Runes of Magic, the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) that is redefining the standard for free-to-play titles and launching March 19, 2009. In-game castles will give guilds the opportunity to live together and furnish their personal guild dwelling. The next step in the plan to support guilds is to enable the guild wars function which will allow players to wage war against each other in GvG (Guild vs. Guild) combat.
However, building a castle isn’t going to be so easy. Guilds must first reach level seven and must have their community coffers well stocked with ore, wood and gold. Should guilds meet these conditions, they will have access to a fortress located in an instanced part of the game world. This will then open a range of opportunities for the guild. For one, the guild castle will contain a central bank for its members and the players themselves will be able to decide what kind of furniture they wish to use to furnish their castle. Guilds can even acquire a throne for their castle as well as practical upgrades such as gates or teleporters that will be useful tactical elements in the planned guild wars.

In future conflicts, guilds will be able to conquer opposing castles. However, guilds may go to war only if they also possess their own throne. The destruction of a throne marks the end of the conflict and the defeated guild loses its throne as well as a part of its assembled resources.

There is also a plan to introduce guild furniture which is reserved specifically for use in castles and grant guilds special bonuses. Guild wars are currently in development and a launch date has not yet been announced.